DW - One Synapse Sparking
by VAPX007
Summary: Slightly Cyberpunked AU set about two generations into the future. Honker is working as an understudy for Doctor Bellum at S.H.U.S.H. and he doesn't know what Gosalyn is up to since she dropped out of high school. Now Gosalyn has recently lost her dad and the bad guy is scheduling a comeback. This Metalwing Origin Story is about the hope that people look for after tragedy strikes.
1. The Mission Briefing

_Disclaimer: And I still don't own Darkwing Duck. Amazing, isn't it?_

_A/n: Currently if anyone wants to read more on this sci-fi topic you can check out _Phoenix Ride_'s profile._

_A/n: On the other hand if anyone wants to write the sequel or the prequel to this story please PM me because I'd love to read your stuff! I also like helping people with their writing and I can help you get your stuff off the ground if you run into any difficulties. I just want you to know that I'll be here till the day I stop updating and I am contactable by PM and you're not alone so please stop thinking that you are._

_A/n: I want to tribute this story to _Backseat Writer_. Her __TMNT__ stories are surely amongst the best stories I have ever read._

* * *

**The ****Mission**** Briefing**

* * *

No one could call the battle that had killed Darkwing Duck either small or trivial.

_They'd had the hero's memorial not three days ago. His funeral affair had been huge with mountains of flowers and adorning flags on the Astroturf roof of St Canard Tower. On the subject of notable attendees there had been no less than twelve public service officials and notable politicians each one sporting a suitably solemn face. Six of these, including St. Canard's current police commissioner, the mayor and Director Hooter of S.H.U.S.H., had taken turns at the podium, speaking through the microphone about their various definitions of honour and duty and pride in one's country and how Darkwing had met every flag fall with indefatigable and commendable courage. They spoke out to a small legion of serving officers, the twenty-piece brass military band, and a throng of pod cast reporters from no less than seven unaffiliated social media websites._

_The city was still grieving the departure of their greatest hero and the city's work crews had barely made an assessment on the infrastructure damage._

* * *

In his grey cadet jumpsuit and white lab coat Honker Muddlefoot walked in step beside his mentor Doctor Bellum. They were the first to arrive in the S.H.U.S.H. main meeting room for the emergency mission briefing that Director Hooter had called. When Honker looked past the door to see a picture up on the big looming screen of Darkwing Duck he experienced a moment of sheer terror.

_Essentially, if there was a picture of the deceased Darkwing Duck already on the screen, Honker was unfortunately certain that this case up ahead of them was going to be extremely dangerous and involve a lot of hard work. It was purely out of stubborn habit that Honker was able to ignore the seed of panic and sit down beside his calm mentor to await everyone else's arrival. The memory of Darkwing Duck's farewell ceremony was still raw in S.H.U.S.H. Cadet Honker Muddlefoot's mind._

Honker silently nodded in acknowledgement as the other attendants came in and took their seats around the table. His first year trainer Vladimir Goodenov Grizlykoff sat down to his left. Some of his co-cadets, who had also made it past Grizlykoff's survival courses and form-filing trials, were also in on the meeting, understudying their own selected mentors.

_The feeling that the city was now without the vigilante's protective presence was as daunting as Honker's first day as a cadet had been three years ago. In that case, however, Honker had felt the thrilling challenge with the prospect of success or simple failure. That certainly wasn't the case now. Darkwing Duck had been gone only a week and already Honker felt the grim reality of hard work settling into the caped hero's place._

Honker looked away and back to the picture of Darkwing Duck on the screen.

_Since the night Darkwing Duck had died, Honker had a new addition to his list of private fears. This was the one where he woke up one morning to discover his success redefined as 'seventeen hundred hours'. It was a legitimate concern, he believed, and it rather dogged him almost as much as personal injury. Nevertheless, Honker's personal worries had nothing to do with Darkwing Duck's memorial service. _

_He refocused his thoughts on Darkwing Duck's picture and who the crime fighter had been as the person Honker had known. Honker was sure the crime fighter would have liked the grand farewell he'd gotten. The only thing that could possibly have made it better was if Honker had caught even a single glimpse of Darkwing's daughter Gosalyn Mallard._

"Good morning, everyone," Director James Gander Hooter beamed at the room's current attendants as he entered the room to take a stand at the head of the table below the big screen. As the last few chairs at the table were filling, Honker's attention duly moved on to the Director.

_Honker had read in the long-standing director's biography that James Gander Hooter had started out his career as a foreign correspondent agent. The other thing that Honker recalled the most in his readings was that Hooter had a deep-seated loathing of incompetence and misdemeanour and of occasion would mercilessly detonate offending hover vehicles with the enemy still aboard. Honker decided he'd probably better focus on the briefing rather than how someone with that much guts could give such a genial Santa Claus impression._

"As you all should be aware it has been approximately one week and one day since Darkwing Duck was lost in the battle against the self-proclaimed cyberlord once known as Taurus Bulba."

_Honker recoiled slightly, not liking the way Hooter had said that. Director Hooter was supposed to say 'his defeat of the self-proclaimed Cyberlord'. The implications of this off choice of words made Honker feel extremely pale._

The director glanced around the faces at the table and his gaze paused on Honker. "I am sure everyone here would like to keep believing that Darkwing Duck's death wasn't in vain. Perhaps we might settle on a middle statement instead and say his death has bought us time."

_Time! That was the crux of it. All at once, Honker felt a fighting fury welling up inside him. He wanted to move, he needed to be doing something. But first, he needed to finish hearing what Hooter had to say. Logic prevailed and Honker contained his instinct to bolt back to the lab before he knew what he needed to be doing in there._

"Just as we feared and suspected, we have gathered sufficient evidence to show that Taurus Bulba has uploaded himself to the cloud." Hooter returned to the big screen display and started cycling through internet pages, showing Taurus Bulba's presence. Phishing money from social network users and hijacking random IP addresses to do it. "The possibility of concentrating our attention to clear him from the net is small however his security access privileges are currently limited to out of date protocol subscribers."

"Sir?" Timberly raised his hand.  
"Yes, cadet?"  
"Is there an ETA of when he'll start breaking firewalls? How fast is he learning?"

"Cadet Timberly, if this matter were only localised to the net, we would not be having this briefing as we already have a minimum of two IT techs on the job at any one moment, working around the clock, and I assure you they are the best in the business." Director Hooter then addressed the screen again and this time showed them video clip footage of Taurus' men on the move with their profiles listed on the right hand side of the display.

_Honker's heart sank. Taurus Bulba was rebuilding his cyberfied body. Darkwing Duck was dead and the physical threat of Bulba was shortly to return in full vengeance to the St Canard metropolis._

_Honker had another urge to get up. He needed to start developing the next generation of mutating super cyber trolls straight away! Although, he admitted, the last generation was a flawed idea. The field agents had discovered belatedly that Taurus Bulba had a closed system and was impervious to downloading viruses into his semi-organic software. But Honker was sure he would get it right this time..._

The director started passing out assignment pads to the over-city and under-city field teams, "Agent Lanley, Agent Dodo, Cadets Timberly and Maddison; good luck. We're counting on you to put them on the back foot."

The field agents left and Honker's nerves were still on fire, still sitting there beside a very cool-headed Doctor Bellum, a muted Agent Grizlykoff and beyond him the ever-indelicate Cadet Johanswan.

"Cadet Muddlefoot, I can read your face like a book." Director Hooter stated when the door had closed again. "Please enlighten us with your thoughts on the situation."

"Sir, the field agents will only be slowing the rebuild down." He immediately took the offer. "We don't have the omniscience to put a complete stop to it." Honker breathed with the uneasy feeling in his gut. "That leaves us with the prospect that Taurus Bulba is going to make his reappearance no matter what, and the fact of that is that there isn't a duck alive that can take the Cyberlord on."

"That is quite true." Hooter answered, settling into a chair opposite them along the long narrow table, "However, Darkwing Duck came very close. And he did physically stop him last week."

_Honker frowned sadly looking back at Darkwing's picture back up on the big screen, once again remembering the redheaded friend he'd lost to the ether as well and how he didn't see her at the memorial and of how much he wanted to have seen her._

He returned his gaze back to the Director. "Yes, he did, sir. Darkwing had a fair grasp on the inner workings of Bulba's psychology like nobody else ever did. If there was any way to even just ask Darkwing for advice we might be able to raise ourselves above the level of 'chickenfeed', as Bulba called us."

"And a rather scathing observation it was." Hooter remarked. "We indeed must learn from our mistakes and action a better response this time. And this is yours and Doctor Bellum's assignment exactly." Hooter slid the last pad from his pile over to Doctor Bellum. "Doctor Bellum, you two are to head over to our east side underwater facility and see if you can't establish some sort of a rapport with what remains of Darkwing Duck. Time is of the essence. Good luck." Hooter finished shortly.

"Yes, sir," Doctor Bellum took the pad and stood up, signalling Honker to do the same.

Honker could die of grotesque curiosity as he saluted Director Hooter and followed his mentor underground to where Doctor Bellum had her hover cycle parked.

_Since they'd already had the memorial service, Honker was unfortunately certain; the 'remains' couldn't be very significant._


	2. The Eastside Facility

**The Eastside Facility**

* * *

Heading out of the inner city, Bellum veered the hover cycle into the old street tunnel beneath the bridge. She then took a turn down a bus only service pike that Honker had never given much notice to before and came to a stop in a small car park about twenty cars in total capacity. There were currently two old style ground vehicles parked near the smoke-glass triangular front emerging from the cement facade.

The two S.H.U.S.H. agents took their helmets off and stove their gear under the seat.

Bellum led the way through the smoke glass doors and down along a twisting corridor awash in a blue glow. The faces of double headed sharks and angry looking cichlids peered eerily from the blue watery depths beyond the glass. They eventually passed into an empty round chamber about twice the width of the corridor and there was no mistaking the fact that the only inhabitants of this remote and vacant blue world were lab technicians and the fish, plankton and coral beyond the glass walls.

"I wish I'd known about this 'remains' bit earlier." Honker felt personally entwined, even though he'd last spoken to Gosalyn and Drake so many years ago.  
"It's something you will have to adapt to, Cadet; the principle of being told on a 'need to know' basis is a tried and true tradition." Bellum answered in her perky voice.  
"I do agree with the principle, Doctor," Honker admitted, "Only it's just on rare occasions like this that I feel like I should be the one making the determination on what I do and don't need to know."

Bellum laughed. "Well, you do know now, cadet."

* * *

There was the sound of footsteps.

"Doctor Brahms, good morning." Bellum turned to address the technician coming from the next corridor. "How is our recent arrival?"  
The blonde rat technician frowned. "I'm not sure you'll have much luck with whatever you're hoping for. He's fading."

Honker with his sinking heart fell in step behind Doctor Bellum and Brahms down yet another shark and plankton decorated twisting corridor.

"Perhaps it's stimulation." Bellum was saying, "Have you tried wiring the system to connect to the net?"  
"Yes. It quite possibly was our mistake. It was about twenty four to forty eight hours after the connection was created when we began to see the first sign of drop in synaptic function and it's been getting worse by the day."

At last, the corridor opened up onto a circular room and the coexistence with the sea dwellers stopped. Around the walls were one-metre square cabinets with black backings. Inside, Honker marvelled even as his stomach was twisting, were disembodied brains, hooked into life support by tubes and wires.

_The reason S.H.U.S.H. would want to do this was immediately clear to Honker. Now he finally understood what the term 'S.H.U.S.H. intelligence directive' meant._

Honker looked at the round sunken centre of the room. Doctor Brahms moved in to stand beside her co-worker sitting in a chair there, discussing the status situation. There were output screens, old-fashioned keyboards and macro-computer units. It was all set out like a computer hub station.

"It's an intranet!" Honker realised quietly to himself.  
"Are you suitably impressed then, cadet?" Bellum quirked.  
"Yes, ma'am," Honker blushed.

Bellum smiled at him and turned back to Doctor Brahms. "Which one is he?"

"Oh, you can't miss him." Brahms returned to their side and made her way along the circling walkway. "He's the one with the flashing warning lights."

* * *

Honker followed Bellum up to the brain on critical alert status. They stopped at one box identical to the others, only the status diodes on the outside panel were flashing red.

"Have you tried hooking him up to the S.H.U.S.H. security communications grid?"  
"Yes, ma'am," The lab technician answered. "We thought of that this morning. His readings improved back to where they were two days ago, but, doctor; they've already started declining again."  
"Is he not communicating with the others in the intranet at all?" Bellum asked.  
"No." Doctor Brahms answered in a sad voice. "He only did that for the first day."

_Honker noticed Bellum looking at him for a moment. Evidently, she wanted him to join in with ideas. Right now he'd just been standing there somewhere between dumb shock, muted horror and waning hope. He really needed to focus. Now._

"What else have you tried, Doctor Brahms?"  
Brahms shrugged. "He's got the intranet, he's got the internet, and he's got access to every corner of S.H.U.S.H. ... It seems impossible to keep this brain happy. He just doesn't like not being in the physical world."  
"He's practically minded." Honker declared, searching his long ago memories of Darkwing Duck. "What about the live security cameras?"  
"We don't have protocol for the cameras."  
"But," Honker argued, "You've got to have access to the local ones. I mean the security net that you have in here." He pointed to the roof where he could see where at least one camera was.

"Visual real world stimulation is not-."

"Oh, do be a dear, Brahms, and stop defending yourself." Bellum cut through. "Hook Darkwing up to the cameras and we'll see how that goes down with him, thank you."

Brahms nodded to the dark haired beagle technician seated at the central station and went over to help him.

* * *

Waiting those few minutes in expectation for the flashing diode colours change from red to orange, Honker knew there was something he should definitely be able to figure out about this.

"He's got access." Brahms reported.  
Honker turned and waved pointedly at a nearby roof camera. "Hello, sir." He said with polite deference, wondering if Drake Mallard even recognised him from Honker's timorous childhood self. He was still inwardly timid, but he'd just gotten good at ignoring it.

_It'd been six years since Honker had last seen Drake Mallard when Gosalyn had dropped out of high school and that had been early in grade ten. Immediately following that decision, she and her father had sold up and moved closer to the inner city so Gosalyn would have a better chance for a job. It'd been five years since both their IP addresses had simultaneously gone offline and all their social accounts deactivated. But Honker had known they were okay because until last week he had continued to see news articles on the net telling of Darkwing Duck's most recent exploits._

_Without Honker particularly realising it, Gosalyn Mallard had ghosted out of existence and without Darkwing Duck to create that connection Honker's childhood friend was just as lost as her father was. But Darkwing Duck wasn't quite dead. He at least was still thinking, at least for the moment he was._

The red flashing lights slowly turned to a less severe orange colour.

_Gosalyn, Gosalyn, Gosalyn. Honker puzzled over the direction his thoughts kept turning. Clearly, he was missing her even after all these years. And if Honker was missing her then it was a safe conclusion that the brain of her father might be missing her a great deal more. Meanwhile everyone here was trying to cater for the mind of Darkwing Duck who all the while was holding onto the Drake Mallard details. To make matters worse, even if Doctor Brahms had actually asked Darkwing through the intranet if he was missing somebody the vigilante's mind would only maintain his stubborn secrecy and deny them the answer, thinking all the while of protecting his daughter's anonymity ahead of his own health._

_Honker needed to bring Gosalyn here. Where was Gosalyn? He couldn't ask Darkwing in his current state. And Darkwing hadn't left any clues. Or had he?_

Honker felt his heart leap with hope from his potential lead and he spun around, "Doctor Brahms," He said excitedly, "can you bring up a history listing on his net browsing?" He hurried down the circling walk back to the entrance of the intranet hub, "I just hope he hasn't deleted it!"

Doctor Brahms glanced at Doctor Bellum behind Honker, "We should be able to pull it up." She sat down next to her co-worker. In a few moments they'd found the listing and had it downloaded into a fresh pad for Honker. "Mostly he's been helping our IT teams close down Phishing sites."

Honker took the pad with Darkwing's search history into his hands in excitement and ran his eyes down the IP addresses. One number continued to jump out at him. Repeatedly. "Doctor Bellum, we need to track down this IP address." Honker summarised, running a quick statistics app to catalogue the various numbers by hit count. "If we're going to bring Darkwing's mind back enough for our mission we need to find the number that he's been calling up the most."

"Alright," Bellum answered and took the pad from him, taking in the number at the top of the chart.

Calmly, Honker's mentor turned back to the technicians. "Please upload this pad to the intranet." She handed it to Brahms. "We need Darkwing Duck's help whenever and however little that he can offer."

_At this moment, Honker wanted to grab his mentor and drag her out the door so they could get going but he managed to stay by her side, keeping his mental fantasy just that._

Shortly they were out the door, and heading back the long and winding corridors.

"Gosh, slow down cadet." Bellum begged, "Are you sure you should be in a lab instead of on the field? You have so much exuberance you could easily keep up with the running around they do."  
Honker spun around. "I like lab work." He answered with a frown.  
"Alright," Bellum breathed. "So let's find this IP that Darkwing is so interested in. You do realise this could be a master criminal that he's trying to shut down, of course?"  
"There is that possibility, ma'am." Honker answered, "But I prefer my theory that says our answer is at this number's location."

When they reached her hover cycle, Bellum slotted the pad into the reader port and ran the IP address through the police grid while Honker grabbed out their gear from under the seat. "Fifth and Blossom," She advised him, "That's not exactly a hot spot for criminal activity."

"That's a good sign." Honker responded and handed Bellum her riding gear before zipping his up over the top of his grey cadet uniform and donning his helmet.


	3. Finding Gosalyn Mallard

**Finding Gosalyn Mallard**

* * *

Honker and Bellum were on their way on the hover cycle back through St Canard city, flying past window garage ledges and neon advertisement signs until suddenly they ended up stuck behind an old woman in a spluttering Dogcatsu.

"It's as though she's going exactly where we are." Bellum mused, Honker hearing her through the intercom in his helmet. "If she wants to drive slowly that's what the road is for."  
"It's alright." Honker tried to console her from behind and through the helmet intercoms. "Darkwing knows we're on the case and he was orange when we left him."

They followed the Dogcatsu for the last five streets and then the woman turned onto Blossom Street and unbelievably Bellum was still stuck behind her.

* * *

They parked on the ground level parking strip and watched the old woman slot down into a parking space before the GM Auto repairs shop one door ahead.

Bellum double checked the readouts on her hover cycle's computer screen as Honker shed his travel gear.  
"What do you know; she was going to the same place we are."

"An Auto repair shop?" Honker sounded out in uncertainty, watching the front of the shop while Bellum put her riding gear back into the seat compartment as well. Suddenly the idea that this might just be another criminal mastermind seemed plausible.

"Why, what were you expecting, cadet?"  
Honker frowned. "Something with blue curtains and flowers in the window box, actually." He admitted.  
"You mean ... oh, I get it, what a marvellous bit of thinking. Locate someone from his secret identity's social circle. Very well done."

_Honker blushed, feeling like he'd just betrayed someone, then realised any fresh eye to the problem might have thought of this. And if this was Gosalyn in this repair shop, then he'd done the job he'd set out to do and St Canard was in luck for the pending return of the Cyberlord._

* * *

The frontage of GM Auto was quite attractive with colourful blue racing bikes and yellow flames erupting in 3D behind them before a vibrant red background.

"Store front advertising. How very retro." Bellum remarked, gesturing to the sign in the window that promoted a discount on optional thruster realignment when ordered with a full service. They stepped in through the front door to the reception to see a big green rubber plant and an old style blue water cooler. "I wonder what the service is like."

The Dogcatsu woman was standing at the counter now with her curly grey hair, her hunch and her faded red slacks and matching cardigan. The robot attendant she was talking to about her repair job had a cylinder shaped head made of a metal tinted the colour of sand. It spoke back with a light and friendly male indentured voice box.

"I don't recognise that brand." Bellum said quietly as the woman passed them on her way back out the door after swapping her key with another one the android had. She had a huge smile on her face as she passed by Bellum and Honker.

* * *

The S.H.U.S.H. agents duly stepped forward to fill the woman's space at the counter.

"I'm sorry." The robot said politely. "We're booked out for today. However we can schedule-."  
"We'd like to speak to the owner of the business." Bellum cut through.  
"-An appointment for tomorrow for your hover cycle registration Xeron-xeron-delta-3-forrest-tango."

Bellum paused, "How do you know what my number plate is? We didn't even pass by this window."  
"Question logged response string not found." The robot's servomechanisms whirred in non-response for several moments. "I'm sorry, miss, please stand by." Then the robot stood up and walked away into the motor shop.

_Honker frowned as the door shut behind the machine before he could see anything more than a glimpse of an ordinary Auto repairs workshop._

Bellum turned to him. "Have you ever seen that robot's brand before, cadet?"  
"No, ma'am." Honker responded. "Without tinkering in it I can only think that its home built."  
"Why build something that you can just buy?" Bellum questioned quietly and the door opened and shut again. The robot had returned. It took its seat back behind the table.  
"Where's the owner?" Bellum asked again and the robot's voice started up.

"I apologise for the delay." The machine stated in its eternally pleasant male voice, "I am aware of your hover cycle registration as I identify you as the riders in the reflection I perceive on the building opposite this one."

_Honker looked back through the window. Sure enough, there was a clear reflection of the street. Honker could even see the hover cycle although as for making out the number plate the robot clearly had better vision than his contact lenses gave him._

"It's been very nice talking to you." Bellum said pleasantly, "But we really do need to speak to the owner of this IP address." She handed the pad to the robot attendant. It grasped the pad with meticulous fingers. Servos whirred for moments as it calculated a response to the non-key card shape and weight. "I'm sorry, miss, please stand by."

The robot stood up and took the pad into the anterior workshop.

This time around, Bellum quickly went up to the door and grabbed the handle so it wouldn't close behind the robot. In the cavernous echoes of the other room, Honker was able to make out the robot's gentle voice and then, unmistakably, a woman's voice followed with a colourful curse.

_'Is that Gosalyn?' Honker couldn't help but hope._

Breathlessly he edged past Doctor Bellum and slipped in through the door. She tagged behind him and they were in the workshop of GM Auto.

The robot rounded the car and headed them off. "Only authorized personnel are permitted past the reception area. No injury statement or claims can be made if you do not follow this directive."

_Honker glanced around, not seeing Gosalyn and his eyes settled on the beige coloured car in front of them._

"Duly noted." Bellum answered, "It's our own silly fault if we fall over something." She skirted past the diligent robot and Honker joined her on the other side of the car. A pair of blue overall covered knees and legs were sticking out from underneath the car with duck-shaped steel-capped boots on the end of them.

"We apologise for interrupting what clearly is a very involved task." Bellum began in her friendly tone.

"It's a hover conversion. Involved is an understatement." The young woman's voice grunted from beneath the carriage and Honker was convinced this was the Gosalyn Mallard. "So yeah, if you don't mind pushing off."  
"Forgive us, miss?"  
"Mallard." The mechanic answered Bellum and Honker's hopes soared even higher.  
"We are representatives of S.H.U.S.H. and we are investigating..."  
"Card." The body slid out halfly from under the car and a grease covered hand stretched out expectantly.

"Card?" Bellum fished into her pocket and handed down her S.H.U.S.H. badge and ID card. The hand disappeared beneath the car and after a moment, it was up again and the mechanic handed Bellum's ID back to her. "Bernie, go fetch Doctor Bellum my notebook."

* * *

The robot that had been standing at the door to the reception disappeared and returned shortly with a simple personal notebook computer.

Honker inwardly groaned, "No, we don't want the computer." He stepped past Doctor Bellum and up beside the pair of legs on the stretcher. "We need the owner."

"Look, guy, I don't know who you think you are but the owner of that IP address is a professional auto mechanic with impeccable books. I should know, because Bernie manages them for me. Now if you'll excuse me, you have my IP and I'm half-way through a hover conversion so if you'll kindly just beat it and I can get on with it."

Honker didn't know how to answer that abrupt demand and stepped back.

"Very well, Miss Mallard." Bellum voiced over and stepped in Honker's place, "But we do need you to sign a release form for your computer. We do want to make sure it gets back to you as quickly as possible."  
"Keep it." Gosalyn swore from under the car. "I don't care if I never get it back."  
Honker felt his breath hitching. "But your emails, your voice messages, your ... banking?"

There was clattering of metal as if she'd discarded something and picked something else up. "I just told you Bernie takes care of all that." There was more metal clicking and scraping.  
"That's a point." Bellum stated, "What is Bernie's IP address?"  
There was an indignant huff from under the car, "Right, because I'm just a mechanic you label me as stupid." Gosalyn snorted. "Bernie doesn't have an IP address."

"Hardly stupid, Miss Mallard." Bellum paused and looked over at Honker. "All robots have IP addresses or they can't get software and protocol upgrades from their distributors."  
"That's the trouble with society these days." Gosalyn continued to work under the car and didn't say anything more.

* * *

Bellum turned back to Honker and gestured him back to the reception office.

"I had never believed I could ever meet anyone as cantankerous as Agent Grizlykoff! If we can't ply this woman out from under that car then I can't be sure what use she'll be for our case. I'm at a perfect loss of how to proceed."

Honker stared at Bellum for a moment. He couldn't explain the prime reason for Gosalyn's bad attitude to her face even though it was killing him to do it. "Give me a moment." He said at last and slipped through the door, leaving his mentor pointedly on the other side.

"Miss Mallard?" He started, slowly rounding the car to her side again. "I'm terribly sorry for your loss." Honker felt the tears welling up and he fought them back. "Darkwing Duck was-." His voice broke. "Gosalyn, Gosalyn Mallard. Miss, you're the only one who can help us."

There was momentary silence from under the car. "How can I help you?" Gosalyn's voice barked unsteadily, sounding as though she were on the verge of breaking down herself.

"You haven't been checking your emails for the past week." Honker surmised unsteadily, "Because then you'd know Darkwing Duck has been trying to contact you."  
"Yeah, right, he's dead. You even just said you were 'sorry'."  
Honker swallowed. "But his brain isn't dead. We have him on life support at one of our facilities."

There was a metal slam and a bang, a spark lit up the workshop and something small and metal clattered to the ground. With the most colourful curse yet Gosalyn slid out from under the car like a laser blast. "Why didn't you just say so?" She quacked at him. "That's heaps more important than a stupid hover conversion!"

Honker stepped back in a shock as Gosalyn sat up and got off the stretcher. Instead of the long red locks that he'd been imagining he was looking at a full head of short green hair and a beak half-covered in black grease and soot tinted feathers. She was about as tall as Honker was. Even under her sagging overalls, he could tell she hadn't given up on her sports training.

"Is his brain really still working?" Gosalyn crosschecked him.  
Honker nodded. "But not for long. He's fading."  
"Well, we'll see about that!" Gosalyn retorted. "Give me a moment to get out of these overalls and then I'll be right with you."

"Thank you, Miss Mallard."

* * *

In a tremor of excitement, Honker backed off and he went back into the reception as Gosalyn went to the back of the workshop.

"She's coming." He answered Bellum's questioning look.  
"Are you sure you're in the right department?" Bellum asked him again. "If you can get a person like that to cooperate then they could do with your services in the legalese wing."  
"It's just a fluke, ma'am." Honker replied with a shrug. "It's not like I did anything that you wouldn't if you were one on one with her."

"Well, I certainly don't know about that assertion of yours over me." Bellum answered cheerily and they waited for another minute.

Gosalyn shortly appeared at the door of the workshop. Instead of overalls she was now dressed in a typical skin-tight cubist-inspired fluorescent white blouse and orange leggings combination with a midriff, a tail length black leather biker jacket, black fingerless gloves and a spiked dog collar necklace. She'd brushed out her hair till it was sticking up at all odd angles but some of the soot was still smudged in her facial feathers making her appear quite sallow and drawn. Visually her look was lost somewhere between the cyber-punk and neo-noir typecasts.

"Let's get going then!" Gosalyn charged for the door grabbing a spare helmet from under the reception desk as she went. "Guard the shop, Bernie, and don't take any more appointments till next week."  
"Okay, Gosalyn." The robot responded. "Will do."

Honker hurried after her, Bellum following behind.

Gosalyn rushed towards the only hover cycle on the street.  
Bellum grasped Honker's arm and drew him back a step. "Have you noticed the manic look she came out with?" She asked him quietly.  
Honker turned back to Bellum. "I think it's perfectly understandable under the circumstances." Honker voted in neutral confidence.  
Bellum looked like she were about to say something else but shrugged it off. "We'll see I suppose."

Bellum pulled out her key card and they geared up with their helmets and flying suits.

Helmet now on Gosalyn perched on the seat behind Honker and grabbed onto him for support. "You know, I didn't even catch your name, Agent S.H.U.S.H. guy, and here I am sitting behind you on a hover bike." She said through her helmet intercom as Bellum started the engine.

"I'm Cadet Honker Muddlefoot." He answered her.

They lifted off and joined the traffic flow back out of the city, neon signs flashing past them, window garages where hover cars parked, strings of washing stretched from alternating windows, brick, metal, cement, glass, merging traffic signs. They were heading back to the underground tunnels and the unassuming bus turnpike.


	4. Plan For Action

**Plan for Action**

* * *

When they got off the bike, Gosalyn was looking around the underwater car park in wonderment.

"This way, Miss Mallard," Bellum said kindly and the three of them filed on through the fishbowl corridors wending at last in the reception area.

Doctor Brahms was there to meet them with her arms crossed. "I'm sorry, but only authorized personnel are allowed past this point."  
"I think she's got honorary authorization." Honker said quietly to Doctor Brahms.  
"Cadet, Doctor Brahms is correct." Bellum stopped him. "We do need to fill in forms in order for the system to clear her."  
"No, we don't." Honker smiled at her.  
Bellum paused. "If she walks through that door right now the security system will go off."

"Doctor Brahms." Honker turned around, feeling like a king for the moment, "Is Darkwing still attached to the local security system?"  
"Yes."  
"Rock on!" Gosalyn leapt past Doctor Brahms and bounded up the corridor without anyone doing more than looking shocked.

_Except for Honker, who was really just taking a moment to admire the way Gosalyn had just so amazingly sprung back to life. And he couldn't help smiling with even more satisfaction, knowing that the reverse was bound to be true. He looked up at the silent security cameras watching them. Was it just his imagination, or were the lights in this environment actually glowing brighter?_

"It appears, Doctor Brahms," Doctor Bellum was saying, "That the security system has cleared one Gosalyn Mallard with honorary authorization."  
"Doctor Bellum." Doctor Brahms grizzled, "You really shouldn't borrow your cadet's dictionary. It's unbecoming." Doctor Brahms stormed off down the corridor.

"Uh, s-sorry, ma'am," Honker frowned.

"Nonsense," Bellum responded in her eternally chirpy voice. "It's a perfectly adequate term to use especially since Darkwing himself was actually an honorary S.H.U.S.H. agent himself."  
Honker smiled back at her. "Thank you, Doctor."  
"Not at all, now come on, I'm worrying about that manic turn on our witness. Or whatever she is."

They walked up the corridor at a steady pace and at last, Honker rediscovered the round room at the end of the journey. His eyes alighted immediately on the green head of hair that was his long lost childhood friend at the central hub. He then assessed the situation she'd created. Doctor Brahms and her assistant were standing irately in the corridor around the central workstation.

"She just took over." Brahms' assistant complained quietly, and ended up fixing the blame for his objections on Honker with a reproachful glare.

_Honker had almost forgotten how much Gosalyn took up the whole room and shot the lab assistant an apologetic smile._

"That's how she works, sorry." He brushed past them and stepped in behind Gosalyn.  
Gosalyn glanced back to see who was looking over her shoulder. "This technology is mind blowing, Cadet Muddlefoot!" She said with suppressed excitement.  
"It's a bit creepy." Honker commented, non-committing. "But practical. It gives S.H.U.S.H. access to intelligence that otherwise would be lost to history."  
"It's brilliant, is what it is. And look at you, all brave and everything."  
"I'm not really brave; I'm just ignoring my fear."  
"That is bravery, Honk." She smiled at him. "And I'm really proud of you."

"Miss Mallard." Doctor Bellum's voice rang out from behind. "Unfortunately I have to ask you to stand aside. The equipment here is extremely vital and needs to be operated by trained professionals."  
"Ouch." Gosalyn stepped aside with a blush and allowed Doctor Brahms to recheck all the setups. "So," Gosalyn walked back up to Bellum on the circle walkway. "What's the sitch?"

"Miss Mallard." Bellum repeated her name, a troubled look on her face. "That is confidential information and who are you really?"  
"Well." Gosalyn challenged back. "That answer depends on what your problem is."  
"And then again, that rather comes back to who you are."

"Doctor Bellum." Doctor Brahms interrupted. "You won't believe this."

_An extremely entertained Honker looked back to Doctor Brahms at the central console._

"What's the matter?" Bellum answered tensely.  
"We're out of critical alert status. We now have green lights across the board."  
"What did she do?"  
"Well, nothing from here. She didn't actually touch any of the settings."

_Honker smiled and looked back at Gosalyn. For one silvery moment he knew what success was and it was dressed up in neon orange leggings, a fluorescent white shirt, black tail length leather jacket, dog spike collar, fingerless gloves, spiky neon green hair and a soot smudged face._

"What?" Gosalyn asked unsteadily, looking from one person to another.

_Honker looked at the other S.H.U.S.H. agents and realised everyone was gawking rather unashamedly at Gosalyn._

Bellum was the first to become sensible again. "Feed the mission into the intranet again, Nurse Kalkaska."

_From his side point Honker watched in a keen interest as the elder agents crowded breathlessly around the computer and readouts started filling up the output screens._

"That's conflicting." Brahms pointed to a point on the screen.  
"That's not conflicting, that's just an expansion."

Bellum stepped past Honker and to Gosalyn's side again. "You built that robot of yours." She stated as though it were fact. "That Bernie robot that you have in your shop He wasn't bought, you built him from scratch."  
"Yeah, he's not particularly clever but he's friendly. He's kind of the opposite of what I am. So we make a great business team. I do the work, he does the schmoozing."

Honker stepped up beside them, catching on to what Bellum was saying, "Doctor, making a robot and making a housing unit are two different things."  
"Actually it's not that much more complicated." Gosalyn disagreed with him. "It's just a matter of adapting the housing principles you have here using Taurus Bulba's own principles and I'm already seeing it. I think it'll be easy."

Bellum took a breath. "How long would it take you to finish a project like this?"

"I'll have to have a proper think about adapting this system with my stylus, ruler and etch-o-sketchbook." She gestured to the life support for the various brains in their cubicles. "So yeah, I'll need you to get your guys to bring my equipment here. And then I'll say Monday will be about it."  
"You're describing a design and building process that would take weeks, months even." Bellum had an incredulous look on her face. "What exactly are your qualifications?"

"I'm Gosalyn Mallard." Gosalyn shrugged. "I am a fully qualified mechanic. I do hover conversions and do oil changes for a living, I build robots using my own custom made microchips in my spare time and I've already half-built the prototype that I'm planning on adapting for this and its sitting in the back room of my workshop."

Bellum paused. "I don't believe you."

Honker frowned, "Is there something I've missed, Doctor?"  
"Well, a lot of it makes sense, only, if Gosalyn Mallard is such a genius robotologist and it will take her only three days to complete something she's never considered up till an hour ago, then how come her prototype is only half built?"

"Ah." Gosalyn frowned, "There's two things to that answer. A, I'm not a genius because I got halfway to finishing before I realised that B, you've talked to Bernie so you get the reason why I had to stop. He's about three conjugations short of a six year old. My customers love him; they think he's charming. Sure, he can read number plates, run basic identity profiles and even do service history checks. But can you really see a brain like that in a crime fighting getup? A crime fighter has to be clever. He has to be inventive. That's why, A, I'm not a genius because I got halfway before realising that."

"Your explanation is plausible." Bellum said at last. "Is there anything else you need other than what is in your workshop? Are there any specific parts you're short on?"  
"Have you got replacement bits for this lot? Obviously when I get to building the environment I'll need to be able to replicate the principles of this system."  
"Doctor Brahms." Bellum whirled around. "Please do what you can to assist Miss Mallard in building a mobile housing unit."

Doctor Brahms paused, "I'd like to look at those plans, first."  
"Whoa, Nellie," Gosalyn grumbled, "I've looked at your system for like one minute and I haven't been back to my drawing board yet. Why is it that old people are always wanting stuff done yesterday? I figure you all must have spent your youths in hyper drive or something."  
"I do apologise, Miss Mallard. Time is of the essence, however."

"Oh, yeah, is that because you only just figured Bulba was making another come back?" Gosalyn rolled her eyes. "All those years of study culminates for one great big exclamation point of surprise." She turned to Honker. "Here's my key card. Tell Bernie not to forget the milk. You'll find everything in the back office. I'll need my drawing tools, my electronics lab, and my tote tray boxes, everything from out of that back room." She paused, "You guys have a desk and a spare chair in a workroom around here somewhere amidst all these sharks?"

"Yes."

"So you can leave the furniture itself." Gosalyn smiled at him. "Thank you for finding me again." She took his arm and hugged him. "Thank you for every bit."

"Wait." Bellum interrupted. "You are saying you have all the parts necessary."  
Gosalyn paused, "Yeah, why?"  
"Taurus Bulba is still gathering parts."

"Yeah, obviously that's because they're out to build a jumbo cyber-jerk." Gosalyn frowned back at her. "What I'm building is four foot three. The body has to fit the brain's standing parameters or else the robotic hook-up won't be neat." She shook her head. "Imagine yourself waking up one morning with two extra arms, gorilla feet and a six foot long neck. You're going to be clumsy with them, right? Right. He's going to be weirded out having a kinetic battery pack instead of a stomach but at least figuring out how to walk again won't be such a big deal for him as it's going to be for Bulba."

"Now that is quite a thought." Bellum mused. "Taurus Bulba overcompensating with size. There is potential for us to turn this to his disadvantage."  
"Doctor Bellum?" Honker interrupted, "Sorry, but are you coming?"

"No. You go ahead, cadet," she handed him the key card to her hover cycle, "You'd best requisition the van plated xeron-five-fox-delta-gamma. It has packing crates already in the back. I want to stay here and get more details from your witness on how she plans to carry out this engineering feat."

Honker smiled and turned to Gosalyn, "I'll be right back with your stuff, Miss Mallard. I need to ask that you stay here because you're one of those people that fill the world with life wherever you go and that is what Darkwing needs right now the most." Honker paused and looked again to the cameras watching them before looking into Gosalyn's wide green eyes again.

"And it's obvious to everyone that he's missed you terribly and is glad to have you back." Honker turned and headed back up the corridor.

* * *

_A/n: I want to tribute this story to Backseat Writer. Her __TMNT__ stories are so wonderful and well written that I want any person who has ever liked ANY action hero story to read them. If you don't know __TMNT__ it's not exactly hard to pick up the basics. Four teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and a four foot mutant rat live in the sewers of __New York City__, scarfing down pizza crusts and fulfil their existence by fighting the criminal under-element with old school ninja. Now you can read __TMNT__!_


End file.
